McCarthy fears a cash backlash

Wolves boss McCarthy is desperate to ensure he is not counting the cost of his players suffering the embarrassment of losing to Paul Hart’s crisis club today.

Portsmouth arrive at Wolves this afternoon in severe disarray, having lost seven successive Premier League games under beleaguered boss Hart.

The players have also been paid late due to Sulaiman Al Fahim’s delayed takeover, but McCarthy has warned his own troops to show no mercy.

And he believes Wolves could face a potential backlash from the bottom club after another miserable week at Fratton Park.

He said: “If I was at Portsmouth I’d be coming up here kicking, biting, chewing, fighting, spitting and cussing to try to make sure that we got our first win.

“Despite the wages problems I still don’t think any of them will be on mince at the weekend. But it just adds to the feeding frenzy that surrounds it. If we can win then someone else will have all this. We’ll be talking in two weeks’ time about them not having won and I hope that’s the case.

“It is a massive game. I’m not trying to hide it. If I try to talk it down, no one would believe it.

“ Will my players want to be the first ones to get beaten by Pompey? Will they heck!”

McCarthy believes record signing Kevin Doyle is already living up to his price tag.

Doyle made the £6.5million move from Reading during the close season, only for a hernia operation to force him to miss the start of the campaign. But he is now fit and firing on all cylinders and will be looking to hit the target against Pompey for the third successive league match.

Doyle scored the opening goal in the 2-1 win over Fulham at Molineux and also netted in the 5-2 reversal at Sunderland last weekend.

McCarthy said: “Kevin is one of the first names on the team sheet – and quite justifiably so because I think he has been terrific for us. He was our big summer signing and has added that bit of quality.”